Provocative zoologist and prolific author Richard Dawkins has built a dual career as a defender of Darwinian thinking and proponent of the view that species and individuals matter much less in the grand swath of life than the genetic stuff inside them. With the publication in 1976 of his first book, The Selfish Gene, Dawkins struck-a raw nerve in biology, the repercussions of which continue to resonate. He has helped pioneer and publicize the application of computer technology to evolutionary theory and, as described in his third book, The Blind Watchmaker, developed software featuring ever-changing cyber-creatures he calls "biomorphs." Other works by Dawkins include The Extended Phenotype, River Out of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable, and the upcoming Unweaving the Rainbow.
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